Living His Life
by sdy007
Summary: Something happened with the sealing and now Naruto is paying the consequences. Chapter 5 up Academy Days. NARUHINA in the future.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters

spoken

_thoughts_

A baby's wailing reverberated within the confines of a ceremonial chamber. The baby in question was crying loudly while lying in a basket. He had an unruly mop of blond hair and strangely enough, a weird looking spiral on his stomach. The Sandaime Hokage looked on sadly at the child in front of him.

How was it that an orphan was called upon to carry the biggest burden the village has ever faced? Sandaime respected the Fourth for his devotion to the village and determination to save it from the rampaging Kyuubi, he truly did carry the will of fire. Yet, somehow Sanadaime couldn't face the fact that he had sacrificed a baby to do this job. The withered old man dragged himself to a chair next to Naruto, for that was the baby's name, in an attempt to calm him. After he sat, he bowed his head in thought thinking over the Forth's last statement to him.

"_He wanted Naruto to be viewed as a hero. I can't believe that he didn't think Naruto would face the ridicule of a demon. Didn't he see the fear that ran rampant through the village because a demon came through it_ ?"

Sandaime sighed and put his face into his hands. Louder crying snapped him out of his thoughts. Naruto started flailing as if in pain and continued to cry louder. Worry crossed Sandaime's face as he tried to soothe the child.

The old man was startled as a draft picked up in the room. There were no windows and the door was closed. How could a wind be blowing? The wind sounded like a long echoing cry, that continually got louder and sounded like a person speaking. Sandaime strained his ears to see if he could confirm if it was words.

A soft glow brought his attention to Naruto. He inferred from the scowl that marred Naruto's face that Naruto had passed out from pain. The glow in question was emanating from Naruto, more specifically, the seal on his stomach.

"_What is going on? Chakra... chakra is being released from Naruto. If this continues Naruto may get hurt because his coils aren't developed enough."_

The chakra seeped from the seal and enveloped Naruto. Sandaime stood up getting ready to place a chakra suppression seal on Naruto to prevent him from releasing anymore. Suddenly, a flash of chakra was released blowing him off his feet. Landing hard on his backside, he looked upward to see that the chakra had shot from Naruto's stomach and was hovering over him.

It looked like that the chakra was struggling to take shape. It twisted, it turned, it moved in every direction. Sandaime looked on, mesmerized by the chakra. Looking carefully, he saw that it had taken the shape of a fox's head. It opened, its jaws and let out an unearthly roar, before the form broke apart and dissipated. The chakra was receding back into the seal, but the chakra still enveloped Naruto. There was a blinding flash, forcing the Sandaime to shield his eyes. When it was over, Sandaime shakily rose to his feet.

"_Kyuubi's chakra! The fox's chakra! How is it possible that such a high amount could be released through the seal? The fox must have forced all his chakra against the seal in an attempt to break it or escape through it."_

Sandaime shivered at the thought that the Kyuubi could have released himself. After taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he walked over to Naruto to see if he was okay. What he saw, he was completely unprepared for.

"_How...how is this possible? It can't be..."_

What he saw was that Naruto had receive a pair of orange fox ears on the top of his head and spouted an eight inch orange fox tail. Fear ran through Sandaime that the Kyuubi had possessed the poor boy. Quickly pushing chakra into his hands, he placed them over the seal to analyze it. Moments passed with Sandaime just standing there, face set in stone. He pulled back his hands, let the chakra fade away and let out the breath that he was holding in.

He plopped into the chair after he had set it back up on the floor, it had fallen over in the chakra flash. The Kyuubi had failed to escape and failed to take control of the boy. There was still a consciousness behind the seal, and the seal was still going strong. If the boy had been overtaken, the consciousness would not be there. Sandaime was still in shock over the fox appendages that were growing out of Naruto. He let out a big sigh as he thought about what he was going to do.

End of chapter 1

This has been on my mind lately and I felt like trying my hand at writing. So if it uploads weird or something, please tell me and how to fix it because this is the first story I've written and don't really know how things work.

So please review and tell me what you guys think. I may or may not continue depending on how well my work is receive until chapter three.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the other things that may or may not have appeared by means of a crossover.

Spoken

_thoughts_

**Kyuubi**

_**kyuubi thoughts**_

I feel so disappointed I didn't get any reviews. Well here's the next chappie and as always enjoy and review

Chapter 2

A five year old boy ran down the street. Panting heavily, he rounded a corner. A crowd of people followed yelling death threats and throwing random objects in the hopes of hitting the boy.

The reason, he was no ordinary boy. The boy running down the street in front of them was the thing they hated most, the thing that had killed so many of their people five years ago, the thing that had practically destroyed their village. That thing was the damned Kyuubi.

_**Ten minutes ago**_

A festival was going on in the village. Noise, lights, and general merriment happening drew a small boy with blond hair to its center. He was amazed at what was going on. His head turned left and right as he walked so he could take in every little detail.

Wondering what was happening, he turned to a man and pulled on his pants. "Hey mister, what's happening?".

The man looked down at the kid and answered, "It's a celebration for the Yondaime. He died killing the Kyuubi five years ago. He was a real hero."

The boy looked amazed, until confusion crossed his features.

"What's a Kyuubi?". The man stared at the kid in shock, "You mean you don't know?"

Seeing that the kid had shook his head he explained. "The Kyuubi was a demon that attacked the village." Light shown in the boys eyes as he said that.

"Wow, Yondaime must have been really awesome then." Seeing that the boy understood he turned back to his drink.

The boy was walking along to see the other things until he bumped into someone. The man was really drunk and was raving about how could the people be so happy when the Kyuubi had cause so much death. He lost everything to the demon and people should be mourning.

The boy fell to the floor. "Oi, you looking for trouble?" the man slurred.

Getting back up, the boy said, "I'm sorry mister, I wasn't watching where I was going."

At this the man became enraged, "Maybe I should teach you how to pay attention then."

He reached out and picked up the kid by the clothing and lifted him to eye level. He drew back his fist in preparation to punch the kid when a flash happened.

Naruto had been shaking in fear when the man threatened him and let out a scream when he was lifted off his feet. The people nearby turned to see what was going on and immediately rushed to stop the drunk from attacking the child. Then the flash happened and they stopped to shield their eyes.

The man that was holding Naruto was shocked. Here in front of him was no boy, but a thing. A thing that had the ears and tail of a fox. He reflexively dropped the boy.

Naruto landed on his feet and scrambled his way out of the crowd that had been surrounding the scene. Everything became quiet as he ran to a safer place. Everybody still in the crowd was speechless. "It can't be..."

Whispers started to break out as people registered the scene they saw. A boy, a boy that had fox appendages was there. Suddenly an outbreak of noise was hear. "That was the Kyuubi!!", "How did it survive?", "Everybody after it so we can kill it for good!" The people scrambled to get any weapons that were available or make-shift weapons.

After running a distance, Naruto stopped to catch his breath. "Man that was scary. Why did he just grab me like that?"

While musing on the drunk man's reasons, he noticed something very odd with his shadow. There was this weird snake like shape moving around. Naruto turned around and saw nothing. Naruto thought that was weird and looked down at the shadow again. That weird shape was still there. This time he only turned his head and saw it.

He reached out for it and grabbed it. Realizing it was attached to him he yelled out, "WHAT IS THIS WEIRD THING COMING OUT FROM MY BUTT!!!" As he was taking a closer look at the tail, a bottle hit him square on the head knocking him down.

Sitting up and rubbing his forehead, he looked around for the culprit. As he looked down the street, he saw that a crowd was throwing things in his direction and screaming out things like "Kill the Kyuubi" Thinking fast, Naruto got to his feet and ran.

_**End the ten minute flashback**_

Turning another corner, he saw that he had run into an alley way with a dead end. Turning around to try to get out of the alley, the mob had corned him. Fear wove it's way through Naruto has he backed away. The fear increased when his back hit the wall, he had nowhere to go.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Naruto asked the mob.

"You killed everybody!!, You took away our family, our friends. You're the Kyuubi. We'll kill you." The mob moved closer and started to throw things at Naruto again.

Naruto was having a hard time avoiding them and was getting hurt pretty bad. "I didn't kill any one! How can I be the Kyuubi when it was killed by the Yondaime."

Naruto's cries fell on deaf ears as they continued to advance. _"Help. Please anyone help. I don't want to get hurt."_

"**DO YOU WANT TO ESCAPE?" **A voice sounded

Desperate, Naruto thought _"Yes"_. The wind suddenly picked up and blew through the crowd. They stopped their advance to block their eyes from the harsh winds. Naruto couldn't hear anything over the howling of the wind and closed his eyes, hoping that someone had come to save him.

The howling had died down and there was only silence. Time passed and nothing happened. Naruto chanced a peek and opening his eyes slowly, saw nothing. Looking around, he saw that he was in a clearing in surround by trees.

'_What happened, and how did I get here?' _Suddenly Naruto was feeling light headed and dizzy.

'_What's wrong with me?' _he put his head in his hands to try to hold off the nausea. Feeling something weird on his hands, he pulled them away to hackle at them.

It was blood. Naruto was losing blood from a wound to his forehead. Feeling the nausea intensify, he quickly closed his eyes, but it was no good. His face had a meeting with the ground with a soft 'whump'.

Naruto opened his eyes and they were met with darkness. Taking a moment for them to adjust, he realized he was lying in a corridor that had water on the floor. _'What is this weird place?'_

Getting up Naruto started to walk down the hall looking for a way out. He turned left, turned right, kept walking until he saw a fairly large room ahead that was well lit. Hoping his luck had changed he ran forward. When he reached the center he saw that bars had been fitted on one side of the room from floor to ceiling. Seeing a silhouette behind the bars, he approached to get a closer look.

Upon closer inspection, the shadow looming behind the bars moved forward to the bars. Naruto looked at it confused until, "I got it! I'm at a mystery zoo. This weird animal is really ugly."

The animal in question was a giant red fox. It's hackles rose at that statement and started growling. **"WATCH WHAT YOU'RE SAYING BRAT. DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT?"**

Jaw dropping Naruto replied, "WOW!!! It can talk. Can you do any other tricks. Mr. Bunny?"

The amazement slid of his face and was replaced with complete and utter terror as the 'bunny' had let out a loud roar.

"**HOW DARE YOU COMPARE ME TO THOSE, THOSE, THOSE...THINGS. I AM A DEMON FOX. I AM THE KYUUBI"**

Silence reigned until something clicked in Naruto's mind. "So you're not a bunny?" A roar knocked him onto his back. "I'll take that as a no."

Getting up again he realized something was off. "Hey wait, you said you were the Kyuubi. That's not possible because that man at the festival said the Yondaime killed the Kyuubi."

"**HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. YOU THINK A MERE MORTAL HUMAN CAN KILL ME. THE ONE YOU CALL YONDAIME WAS FORCED TO MAKE A DEAL WITH THE SHINIGAMI TO SEAL ME INTO YOU."**

"Then it's true what the people said about me. That I was the Kyuubi, that I killed all those people." Naruto slumped down onto the floor with a splash and started crying for the fact that he was a demon, a mass murderer.

"**DON'T DELUDE YOURSELF KID. I'M STILL ME AND YOU'RE STILL YOU. THOSE IDIOTS ONLY THINK YOU'RE ME BECAUSE OF THOSE NICE LOOKING FOX EARS AND TAIL."**

The facts reached Naruto ears and a great weight lifted off his shoulders. He wasn't a demon, he was just a regular kid...who happened to have a demon inside of him. Then the obvious hit him like a ton of bricks.

"What do you mean fox ears and tail?" Feeling his head he found the ears poking from underneath his hair and looked behind him to see the tail waving slightly in the air. _'So that's what that thing was.' _

Panic followed soon afterward as Naruto started to run around in circles screaming at the top of his lungs. "AAAHHHHH, I'm a weird fox thingy."

Kyuubi getting tired of this troublesome kid quickly responded to his statement. "DON'T BE STUPID. FOXES ARE NOT WEIRD THINGIES. IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT WHEN I TRIED TO ESCAPE WHEN I WAS SEALED INTO YOU THAT YOU ABSORBED SOME CHAKRA AS A SIDE-EFFECT AND BECAME A HALF-DEMON."

This didn't work as Kyuubi had planned and only served to panic Naruto more.

_**Meanwhile...**_

Back at the festival the screams and noise level had drawn the Hokage's attention while still in the tower. Wonder what was happening, he took out his crystal ball and looked for the problem. He grew pale at the sight that Naruto was running in all his fox glory and had projectiles thrown after him.

Calling his guard outside the door, he gave instructions. "Quickly, gather as much ANBU as you can and tell them to restrain all the villagers and move them back to the festival site."

The guard poofed away to do as he was told. Quickly looking again at the ball, he saw that Naruto was passed out on the ground. Fears running high that Naruto had been seriously hurt, Sarutobi rushed out the window to find Naruto.

_**Back with Naruto...**_

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH"

That was the only thing that Kyuubi heard as the kid panicked more. Opening his mouth to try to talk to the kid again, he paused sensing something approaching Naruto's real body.

"**OI KID.", **the fox shouted over the din that the small boy was making.** "SOMEONE IS COMING TO YOUR BODY AND IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DIE, YOU'D BETTER WAKE UP BEFORE THEY SEE YOU AND THINK KYUUBI."**

Skidding to a stop he looked at the giant fox and tilted his head. "How?"

Sighing to himself Kyuubi said, **"DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING. JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES." **Naruto followed the command and feeling a slight dizzy spell come on. When it stopped he opened his eyes to see that he was indeed back in the real world and lying on the ground.

Rustling leaves caught his attention. Remembering how the villagers had acted and Kyuubi's advice, Naruto rushed for some nearby bushes to hid himself. Turning around so he could see the clearing, he poked his face forward through some of the shrub to get an unobstructed view.

Stepping out into the clearing was the Sandiame with a frown on his face. _'Where is Naruto?' _Anxiety growing every minute the boy was unfound. Seeing that it was the old man, Naruto ran out to greet him with a cry of "Ji-san"

Turning to the source of the noise, Sarutobi ran up to Naruto and enveloped him in a hug. "Are you okay Naruto. Are you hurt anywhere?" "I'm fine", Naruto answered.

Looking over the boy, he saw that he was unhurt, and for the most part fine. Standing up from the hug, he whistled. Moments later, an ANBU jumped from the trees and landed kneeling in front of the two.

"Yes Hokage-sama?"

"Please take Naruto back to my office and guard him. Don't let anything deter or distract you from this task."

Turning to Naruto, "I'll be there to talk to you later. I have something to take care of so just wait patiently." said Sarutobi. Naruto nodded and was picked up by the ANBU before he lept into the trees.

Seeing that they had gone, Sarutobi knew he was in for a rough night now that he needed to deal

with the village. Moving off the village, he hoped it would go alright.

Naruto was looking around the old man's office. The ANBU was standing outside the doors to stop anyone from entering and was confident that he could sense if anyone came in by other means.

Naruto found something curious that had moving things swirling around in it. It was a ball, but the weird thing was that it was showing the Hokage in the midst of a crowd with the ANBU backing him up. Surprise showed on Naruto's face as he watched.

Sarutobi was having a hard time in calming the crowd, trying to allay their fears. The fact was, he tried to explain, that the seal was still holding and that Naruto had in no way released or was possessed by the demon.

Roars of disagreement sounded as the crowd pointed out that he had a tail and fox ears. Sarutobi stood silent, arguing with himself whether to tell the villagers that the those features had come from the sealing. Seeing no other choice, Sarutobi cut them off and told of what he saw the day of the sealing, saying that it was not necessary to tell the public because it would incite panic over nothing.

However, the villager pushed for the death of the boy now, saying that if the demon nearly broke free before, what was to stop it from trying, or that the boy was actually the demon and was biding its time.

Sarutobi tried to argue back, but the villagers refused to listen. Calling on his ANBU to silence the crowd, Sarutobi set forth the law that speaking of the Kyuubi in any way, shape, or form was illegal and punishable by death.

Naruto watched on sullen faced as the event unfolded. The angry cries and faces of the villagers calling for his death etching itself into his memory. Naruto felt trapped, with no where to go.

Sarutobi came into his office and noticed that Naruto was sitting on the floor crying and in front of him was the crystal ball. He had forgotten to deactivate it in his rush. Stomach plummeting, he wondered how much had Naruto seen.

Moving to comfort the boy, Sarutobi knelt down next to him and reached out. Naruto pushed himself back, not wanting the Hokage to associate with him, not wanting the Hokage to get into trouble because of him.

Naruto had seen the people and how they reacted to the Hokage, Naruto cared too much about him to get him into trouble. In backing up his back hit the wall and Sarutobi had caught up to him and hugged him.

"It's going to be alright Naruto." he whispered over and over again. Naruto heard these comforting words and touch of the Sandaime and believed that it would be alright.

After waiting a couple of minutes, Naruto ceased his crying and. "Naruto, can you tell me what happened today?" Sarutobi picked up Naruto and placed him into a seat and went to get his own.

Seeing that the Hokage had returned with another chair and sat down Naruto began his tale.

Sandaime looked pensive through the story. _'He met the Kyuubi and it helped him? Why would it do such a thing?_' Naruto had continued to stare at the Hokage looking like something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" asked Naruto.

"Nothing. It's just that I was confused why the Kyuubi was helping you? It doesn't seem like a thing a demon would do. Just be careful if you ever see it again."

Naruto nodded. "Now that this day is over I don't think it's safe for you to go back to the orphanage." At this Naruto mood dropped. "You'll spend the night here and I find more suitable living arrangements for you tomorrow."

Naruto nodded again and then was slowly drifting off to sleep. Looking down at the slumbering boy the Hokage really wondered if it was going to be alright like he said before. He rolled up his sleeves and prepared to seal the fox appendages again with an illusion like last time.

_**2 years later**_

Naruto was once again running from a crowd. Ever since that fateful day, none of the villagers cared for Naruto anymore. They yell at him, they refuse to sell him anything and if they did it was ridiculously overpriced, they threw stuff at him and attacked when he was alone.

The law that Sandaime had placed into effect had not suppressed their animosity, merely increased it and forced them to find new ways to hurt the demon carrier. None of the children were allowed to play with him as the other kids were told he was bad.

The worse part was that the apartment Sarutobi had found for Naruto, was constantly be trashed by villagers. Naruto could keep nothing of value and even then, he could barely keep anything at all because it would all be destroyed.

So once again Naruto was running. Emotions regarding the demon always ran high on the day that the Kyuubi was supposedly killed. They hated the demon. The fact that the demon was still alive was a mockery to the Yondaime and made the festival a hollow celebration.

Naruto had built high amounts of speed and stamina from his constant running from the mobs and that was enough to get away from civilians, but when the shinobi started to join in to get revenge fo their fallen comrades, it wasn't enough. Time and time again a voice sounded in his head asking him if he wanted to escape and the answer was always yes.

Naruto had met the Kyuubi and asked why he was helping him, but the giant fox merely responded that he was not the one that was helping him.

This time was no exception, Naruto was being run down by shinobi. 'Damn bastards.' A chuunin had put on a burst of speed using chakra in his legs and dashed past Naruto. Seeing this, Naruto

skidded to a stop because the chuunin had effectively cut off his path.

He wished he had not stopped because the rest of the shinobi had surrounded him. One stepped forward and pulled out a kunai. "Time to die, demon." The rest followed suit and all pulled kunai. Naruto looked frantically around trying to find some way out until

"**DO YOU WANT TO ESCAPE?"**

Naruto looked around to see if he could spot the owner of the mysterious voice, but all he could see were the chuunin and they didn't seem to have heard the voice. _'Yes'_

Like always, the winds picked up until Naruto was forced to close his eyes. When the wind died down, Naruto found he was in one of the training areas. Moving to one of the posts there, he sat down with his back against it.

"Kuso, why am I so weak. I don't want to get hurt anymore. I'm tired of it, I'm tired of these stupid villagers. I'll never become a ninja if they kill me."

"Heard you wanted to be a ninja." Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and looked around and tensed his body to get ready to run if necessary. "Who's there?"

"I'm surprised you don't know. I'm all around you. I'm the one that always saves you."

Still seeing nothing Naruto called out, "I see nobody when that voice asks if I want help"

"Well then, what does happen when I save you?"

"The wind comes and ... wait a minute are you saying you're the wind."

"That's right kid and I heard you see that you looking for some training". The wind picked up blowing loose dirt around. Naruto brought up his arms to shield his face. "So do you accept?"

Looking out in front a man had appeared. He had red hair and green eyes. He wore a black shirt with two strips of with clothe that crossed over each other and baggy white pants the poofed out at the bottom. A blue clothe belt was tied about his waist and the excess clothe fell to his knees. He had black slip on shoes.

"You can make me strong? Strong enough so that the village doesn't mess with me?"

"That's right kiddo, so do you want to?"

Naruto regarded the man suspiciously. No one ever wanted to help him except Sandaime and even then with his job as the Hokage, they couldn't spend a lot of time together.

Naruto had grouped the villages and shinobi into different categories: indifferent, cowards who won't do anything, but give him a hard time, mob members, and people who go out of their way to harass him. The Hokage was the only exception, as even the children didn't approach him.

"Why are you helping? Why do you save me and why are you offering to make me strong? I don't even know your name or how the hell you can be wind."

The man looked at Naruto with something along the lines of pity. "Well then, allow myself to introduce...myself. My name is Jin and I am wind. Well not really the wind, more like the wind master because I have the winds working for me. As to why I am helping you, I was attracted...drawn to you for some reason ever since you were born. I have a few theories why, but that's for later. I watched as you grew up and I saw how the villagers started treating an innocent youth to be nothing more than a monster that he will eventually become. Tell me Naruto do you feel angry about how you've been abused?"

Anger flashed in Naruto's eyes. "I hate those damn villagers. They have no reason to attack me for something that Kyuubi did. The villagers are worse than Kyuubi."

"I don't want you to lose the innocence that you still have. You are only a child and should still have the time to enjoy yourself before you become a shinobi of the Leaf."

Jin gave Naruto a few minutes to reflect before breaking the silence. "So, will you accept?"

"Yes."

"Excellent, since you're a human, your control over wind will be non-existent at worse and moderate-minimal at best. You'll need special equipment for me to effectively train you. "

Jin put his hand out in front of him palm up and flexed as if he were holding a ball. Winds raced to that point and made a mini maelstrom, then gradually dissipated leaving behind a pair of gloves in his hand.

They were a forest green color that were fingerless. On the back of the hand it had a metal plate that was engraved with the kanji for wind inscribed in a circle. Jin tossed them to Naruto.

Naruto inspected the gloves before looking back at Jin.

"I'm not exactly a human."

"Ah..yes I forgot about that. Doesn't matter to me, as a fox hanyou, you won't reach elemental control until later. You can ask Kyuubi about that. I'm sure he can explain better than I can. Before you put those on, I want to put my theory to the test."

Jin reached behind his back and produce a small square piece of paper.

"This is something ninjas use to determine their elemental affinities. This kind of paper is made from trees that have been nurtured with chakra all their lives and will react to chakra. When chakra is channeled into it, it will be destroyed. Depending on how, determines your strongest

affinity."

Naruto took the offered paper. "How do I channel chakra?"

"Just relax and focus. Pretend that you are sending energy from you body into your arm and into the paper."

Naruto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He pretended to 'see' energy flowing out of him and into the paper. Naruto opened his eyes as a warm, tingling sensation was felt in his arm and hand. The paper was split in two.

"Congrats. I guess you have some talent. Now for my theory. I believed that you had an affinity so strong for wind that I was drawn to you and here is my proof. The split paper show that you do have wind affinity and I actually felt it when you generate your chakra."

Walking up to Naruto, Jin ruffled his hair, making it more spikey and messy. "I'll be by sometime tomorrow morning to start your training. In the mean time, to use the fighting style I'm gonna teach you, you need quick reflexes and speed for attacks. So..."

Jin trailed off as he produced some weight bands. "Here. Put these on your wrists and ankles. I'm not expecting you to get used to them by tomorrow, but you know, go do some exercise of something to speed up the process."

Jin gave the weights to Naruto and stepped away. Wind started to swirl around him before it stopped.

"I almost forgot, don't try to channel chakra again. Until I am sure you can do it by yourself, there is a chance that you could end up hurting yourself."

A swirl of wind and leaves and Jin had disappeared.

Naruto stood in silence and deep-thought. _'This is my chance. To become strong so that nobody can mess with me anymore.'_ His chain of thoughts was broken when his arms started to be strained under the weights.

He dropped them and then put on the gloves and weights. The weights were moderately heavy for a person his age and weight, but Naruto figured he could wear them on a daily basis without getting to tired.

'_This is as good as time as any to start my training.'_ Naruto started to jog around the clearing.

_**10 minutes later**_

'_This is harder than I thought.'_ Naruto stopped his jog and sat down at the base of a tree. Catching his breath, he felt the exhaustion affecting him and making him sleepy. It was a few moments before he was snoring softly.

Naruto felt sore and felt that he was lying down._ 'I must have fallen asleep.' _opening his eyes, he realized that he was brought into his mind for another chat with Kyuubi. Following the path he knew that would take him to the cage, Naruto wondered what Kyuubi would want to talk about.

Naruto and Kyuubi had built up a friendship of sorts since the two had met. Kyuubi had felt that

because Kyuubi had turned Naruto into a hanyou, he felt a weird sort of attachment, not unlike an uncle of father.

Naruto accepted this as he was lonely and longed for someone to be with him. The villagers had taken their toll on Naruto's mental ability to cope with the sadness. When Naruto had seen Kyuubi, he broke down crying and spilled all his problems to the great beast.

Kyuubi felt the sadness coming off of him in waves and felt remorse that it was partially his fault. He accepted Naruto and guided him with small bits of advice when he was down or in desperate need of assistance.

In those two years, Naruto had taken to camping out in the woods, because he could buy no food and had no place safe to sleep within the village. Kyuubi had given him advice on how to catch food and basic survival skills.

Walking the final length of the corridor, Naruto saw the Kyuubi in front of him now.

"**I NEVER EXPECTED THAT JIN WAS THE ONE THAT WAS SAVING YOU."**

"Do you know him?"

"**I'VE SPOKEN WITH HIM A COUPLE A TIMES BEFORE WHEN I GOT MY 5TH TAIL. ANYWAY I BROUGHT YOU HERE TO TALK ABOUT YOUR TRAINING. I CAN SUPPLEMENT YOUR TRAINING WITH SOME KNOWLEDGE THAT I HAVE IF YOU WANT."**

"Thanks Kyuubi. That would be great. Oh yeah, Jin said something about elemental control for foxes. What's he talking about?"

"**DEMON FOXES ARE UNIQUE CREATURES AND ARE RANKED IN TERMS OF STRENGTH AND STATUS BY OUR TAILS. EVERY TIME A FOX DOES SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT, A TAIL IS GAINED. THE FIRST TAIL THAT ALL DEMON FOXES HAVE ALLOWS US TO USE ILLUSION. THE SECOND IT TRANSFORMATION. TAILS THREE THROUGH SEVEN GIVE CONTROL OVER ELEMENTS IN ORDER OF AFFINITY. TAIL THREE GIVING YOU THE ELEMENT YOU HAVE THE MOST AFFINITY FOR. TAIL EIGHT IS THE SPECIALIZATION ONE. I AM A DESTRUCTION TYPE. THE NINTH TAIL IS COMPLETE MASTERY OVER YOUR ABILITIES."**

"So can you tell how it's going to work for me?'

"**BECAUSE YOU WEREN'T BORN A DEMON FOX, YOU CAN ONLY HAVE FOUR TAILS MAX, FIVE IF YOU'RE LUCKY. SO YOU'LL HAVE WIND CONTROL BY TAIL THREE AND YOUR SECOND ELEMENT BY TAIL FOUR."**

Naruto thought about it and questioned something. "How long does it take for a fox to get tails?"

"**IT CAN TAKE A LONG TIME. SINCE TIME BARELY AFFECTS KITSUNES, IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER. YOU'VE HAD A LONG DAY WHY DON'T YOU GO TO SLEEP NOW. TOMORROW YOU BEGIN YOUR TRAINING."**

Naruto's form started fading from the room. Indeed, tomorrow would be a big day.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the other things that may or may not have appeared by means of a crossover.

Spoken

_thoughts_

**Kyuubi**

_**kyuubi thoughts**_

Thanks to all that reviewed, and yes I did make Jin the one from YYH.

**Dragon Man 180**: Other's might appear, I'm not sure, but for the Kurama question, I've establised too much of Kyuubi to do that.

**NewSon:** It depends on how I feel

Now on with the chapter...

Chapter 3

Naruto woke up and yawned. Getting up from the sitting position at the base of the tree he rubbed his sore neck from sleeping in that position. Naruto felt strangely cold this morning. Looking at his body he realized that his clothes had holes in them. Most likely from yesterdays chase.

He sighed to himself, he would need new clothes and the only way he could do that was to go see the Hokage, and that place was so hard for him to get into without getting kicked out or attacked.

Walking back to the outskirts of the village, he braced himself for the walk to the Hokage tower.

It was still fairly early so that would mean less people to bother him. Settling for a brisk pace, he began his trek.

Naruto took as many of the side and back alleys as he could to avoid the early risers, but he still ran in to the inhabitants a few times. He could hear their grumbling about the "demon" and its evil and blah, blah, blah. The stares burned into him as he walked by and only increased his anger.

Seeing that the tower was straight ahead, Naruto dashed for it as fast as he could. He couldn't stand the villagers anymore than he had to. Naruto paused at the in front of the entrance to catch his breath. Naruto stepped inside and instantly began cursing under his breath. The tower was full and already bustling for the new day.

Naruto couldn't believe his luck. Even though this tower was a safe haven for him because the Hokage was in it, the ninjas that were in it were the ones that were out to get him the most, believing that he was trying to kill the Hokage. Naruto would need to make a run for it because he would most likely be seen and caught, but that was practically suicide.

He waited until the first hall was nearly empty. _'Now.' _He rushed as fast as he could toward the stairs. _'If I can make it to the front of his doors I'll be safe.' _Upon reaching the stairs, he ran into a something and fell. Seeing that he ran into a ninja, he sprung up and continued his mad dash towards the top floor. _'Shit, now they know I'm here.' _

The ninja looked around to see what he had walked into. The stack of files he was carrying had obstructed his view and now they were all fluttering to the floor. Seeing that nothing was in front of him, he turned around. He caught a glimpse of Naruto before he rounded the stairs.

"THE DEMON!! Everybody the Kyuubi is headed for the top floor!!" he shouted alerting everybody of Naruto's presence in the building.

'_C'mon, almost there...' _Naruto made the stairs and headed straight for the door at the end of the hallway. The problem was that the two guards stationed in front of the door were on alert and several voices not far behind him were getting closer.

A ninja had reached the top of the stairs and yelled out "STOP HIM. Don't let him get any closer!" The two guards outside the door moved instantly to intercept him and each one grabbed an arm and held him up. Naruto struggled furiously. He kicked and flailed, but couldn't brake their hold on him.

"We've got you now demon. Attempted assassination of the Hokage. You'll burn for this." one of the guard hissed menacingly to his face.

"What's going on here?" An authoritative voice sounded over the noise the ninjas that followed Naruto were making. A collective gasp arose, but the guard that had threatened Naruto hadn't noticed.

"We just caught the demon." The guard turned his head to see who he was addressing. "He was trying to..." The guard had trailed off as he saw that the Hokage was standing behind him, with an angry look etched into his features.

The guard gulped and finished his sentence. "Hokage-sama, we w-w-were ju-just bring-ing the boy t-t-to you."

"So nice for all of you fine shinobi to escort Naruto to me. I know there are many people that want to hurt him." Sarutobi's anger was evident and brought chills to the ninja when he spoke those words.

"Now if you'll release him..," The guard dropped Naruto and he instantly ran to the Hokage's side, "please return to you jobs."

Sarutobi guided Naruto into his office as the ninja hurriedly dispersed themselves. He searched his robes for his pipe and started to smoke. Moving around his desk he sat across from Naruto and observed him.

Naruto had ripped clothing, seemed dirty and seemed poorly fed. Sarutobi couldn't count the number of times he thought about taking in Naruto. Alas, that was impossible as his work kept him busy and he loved the village too much to step down.

Naruto stared attentively as the Hokage cleared his throat. "Ahem. Naruto, what was the reason that you have come today?"

"I need new clothes and food, ji-san."

Sandaime got up and moved to a corner of his office. Sarutobi has had this set-up since Naruto was found to be the demon container. Naruto was refused service in practically the whole village no matter how much money. So instead of giving Naruto money, Sarutobi bought clothes and food for Naruto. Whenever Naruto was running low on one or the other or both, he would just come to Sarutobi.

Sarutobi rummaged around in a box and tossed some clothes to Naruto. Naruto caught them and held them up to examine them. The shirt was blue and on the front had a red flame like swirl (A/N: like the one on his white shirt when he was a kid.). He had also received a pair of black pants and a pair of white boxers. After Sarutobi had given Naruto his clothes he gave him a bag of rations. Naruto couldn't be given normal food, if he put his food into his apartment, it would be destroyed, or the food would spoil before he could finish it all. The rations given to Naruto was mainly travel type food that had a long shelf life.

Putting the clothes aside, Naruto took the food and looked through it. Mostly jerky and dried foods and power bars. Sarutobi had also given him a small supply of soldier pills and warned him to only eat one per three days.

"Naruto, have you eaten breakfast yet?" Seeing that Naruto shook his head he said "How about we get some breakfast?"

"Thanks, ji-san" Putting his clothes and food into a bag together the walked out the tower. Every stare that Naruto received, he returned back. Naruto was still fuming about the trouble he was given and how he almost died if he hadn't made it to the top floor.

The two quickly and quietly made their way to Ichiraku. They were just finished setting up and started in making ramen for the people who liked it for breakfast. Upon seeing the Hokage and Naruto, he waved cheerfully and called out to them. Ichiraku was most likely the only store that would serve Naruto. Teuchi and Ayame didn't care about his status, a customer was a customer and what a person had inside them didn't turn the person into that thing.

The two waved back and walked over to sit on the stools. Placing their orders for two pork ramen, Teuchi set about to start making it. Sarutobi had turned to Naruto and asked him how it's been.

"Well, yesterday I was being chased again." Naruto growled out in a low voice, but the Hokage understood it. "I was surrounded when that voice helped me again"

After being chased multiple times and not getting hurt Sarutobi asked Naruto how he was getting away so far from the village and not getting hurt. Naruto responded that a voice asking if he wanted to escape always helped him.

Sarutobi was always in deep thought about who it was, but over time he just passed it off as the Kyuubi.

"I met the person who's been helping me yesterday." At this the Hokage grew interested. He was sure it was the Kyuubi, but if Naruto only met him yesterday, it couldn't be.

"It wasn't the Kyuubi?"

"The Kyuubi said he didn't know who was helping when I asked him before. The person that's helping me is a man named Jin. He say he's the wind or something."

Teuchi put out the ramen for both of them effectively cutting off the conversation. Naruto was glad to have warm food today. He took the chopsticks, broke them apart, said "Itadakimasu" and began to eat.

_**5 bowls for Naruto and 2 for Sautobi later...**_

Both of them had ate their fill and now Sarutobi was eager to get back to finding out about Jin.

"So Naruto, about Jin, what's he like?"

"He seems like a nice guy, he knows what I am, but doesn't hate me. In fact he even wants to train me to become a ninja. Look at the weights and gloves he gave me."

Naruto put out his arms in front of him to give Sarutobi a chance to see them. The gloves didn't seem like anything special, but there was a feeling of subtle power he got from it. The weights were basic bands that had openings where weights could be added or taken out.

The curiosity of the Hokage was peaked now. "Can I meet Jin?"

"Sure, he said I was going to start my training today."

The Hokage got up paid the bill and had Naruto start leading him. Naruto led Sautobi to the spot where Jin had taken him. Naruto told the Hokage that he was going to take a bath in a stream nearby. Receiving an affirmative, Naruto walked out of sight leaving Sarutobi waiting.

The minutes ticked by as Sandaime waited patiently. A cracking of a twig caught his attention and turned to the source of the noise. He saw that it was a man.

Getting on guard, the hokage asked "Are you Jin?"

"Why yes I am." Jin looked around in an exaggerated manner and asked "Where's Naruto?"

"I'm right here." Naruto came back in his new clothes and hair dripping water and hanging over his face.

"So kid, ready to begin your training?"

"Yes"

"Wait!" cried out Sarutobi. "I still don't know who you are and what your intentions are."

"Oh, you don't know? Well, me name's Jin and I'm the wind master. And the reason I'm training Naruto? Let's just say...I've took a liking to him and want him to be able to help himself. Don't worry, he's in good hands."

Sarutobi pondered his answer and it seemed acceptable. He didn't seem to hold any hate for Naruto.

"If Naruto comes to me saying that you hurt him, then you'll regret it." With that the Hokage turned to Naruto and said "If you get into any trouble, don't hesitate to come to me." Sarutobi then walked back in the direction of the village leaving Naruto with Jin.

Jin let out a low whistle. "That man is scary. Heh, Naruto, looks like you got yourself some powerful backup"

"Anyway back to the training. First things first, you need to be physically fit so that you can fight a max potential. Sometimes in a fight, it may come down to raw power to deliver a finishing blow. So, got your weights? Start giving me some laps."

Naruto started running, and didn't stop running. He ran until he fell from exhaustion. Jin looked on, amused and somewhat worried about Naruto. _'I knew Naruto wanted to be strong, but pushing himself to this extreme is kinda dangerous for a kid this young.'_

"Oi, Naruto. Don't push yourself so hard, you'll never get anywhere if you burn yourself out too fast. It's all about the big picture over time."

Naruto lying face down on the ground tried to look at Jin, but he wasn't in his field of vision. He feebly attempted and managed to sit up.

"WHAT! I just kept running because you never thold me how many to do or when to stop!!"

"Oh, well then..." Jin trailed off in embarrassment.

"Jeez, it's not even noon and your tired from just running. I had other exercises for you to do, but seeing as how you're exhausted, how 'bout we just skip that and go to the chakra part. But first..."

Jin trailed off as he walked away from Naruto. He took some jerky from Naruto's stash off food and gave it to him.

"Gotta get your strength back up so later you can complete your exercises."

Naruto took the jerky and mumbled his thanks.

"Now pay attention. Chakra is the energy that is needed for all things to live. All living things have it. Chakra is a mixture of physical and spiritual energy. In your body, those two energies are constantly mixing to produce chakra. Physical energy is your stamina or endurance so the more your train your body the more stamina you have and the more chakra you potentially have. Spiritual energy is gained through training, experience and meditation.

It is possible to mix more chakra together in preparation for jutsus. This process is called molding chakra. Basically, all you need to know right now is that the more you train, the better off you are, okay?

So with converting chakra into a element is a different story. With wind you should imagine as two planes of chakra that are pushing against each other and grinding one another to become as sharp as possible."

Jin brought his hand up and flicked it bring a gust of wind. Leaves flew towards him. Catching one leaf in his hand, he held it up between his fingers.

"Your first exercise is to cut this leaf using wind."

The leaf that Jin held suddenly split into two.

"So, begin whenever your ready."

"I don't know how to use chakra. You just told me how to do it a little yesterday." Naruto said causing Jin to fall over.

"WHAT?!?!!?!?!" Jin quickly regained his composure and coughed a little. "Well then, you just have to learn right now."

Jin cupped his chin in his hand as if stroking a non-existent stubble. Then he slammed his fist down into his other hand as sort of the 'I've got it pose!'

"Well chakra is easy enough to mold. Beginning ninjas usually use the ram seal to mold so lets begin with that."

Jin demonstrated the seal and said, "Now you have to feel out your chakra and bring it out." At this point Jin started glowing a blue and red color. "And there you have it. Now you try"

Naruto brought his hands together and fumbled with his fingers a little until they were in the correct position. He closed his eyes and began to search himself. He found that the chakra was residing in his abdomen and began to coax it out like he had seen Jin do.

Letting out a grunt of exertion, Naruto began to glow blue and a tremendous strain over various parts of his body. Suddenly his concentration was broken as sharp stabbing pains erupted all over his body.

"AAAAHHHHHH!!" Naruto fell over and curled into a ball in an attempt to relieve some of the pain. A flash of light and his fox features were shown.

Fear passed over Jin as he hurriedly rushed to Naruto's side to see what was wrong. As far a Jin could tell Naruto was in pain for no reason. A simple chakra molding exercise shouldn't cause this level of pain or any at all for that matter. However, looking at Naruto, spikes of chakra were lancing out randomly all over his body.

He picked Naruto up and gathering wind around him levitated a few inches above the ground before shooting straight up. Jin leveled out and flew full speed towards the Hokage's office.

The Hokage was currently doing some paperwork, when his window broke with an deafening crash. Sandaime jumped up ready to defend himself and the two guards opened the door to see what was going on.

It was Jin and he was carrying Naruto, who was moaning and screaming in pain. The spikes of chakra had left marks all over Jin's torso. Sarutobi rushed over to him and took Naruto into his arms.

The two guards rushed forward and pushed Jin away from the Hokage

"Who are you and what are you doing?"

"Get out of my way!" Jin growled. "This doesn't concern you!!"

"If that damn demon is involved with the Hokage, then it is our business."

"ENOUGH!! I need to bring Naruto to the hospital. Jin, follow me."

As the two men moved out, the two guards seethed in anger that they were seen as less important than the demon. The two started whispering to each other forming a plan.

Meanwhile en route to the hospital, Jin wondered what was happening.

"What's wrong with Naruto. He was just gathering chakra when he fell over in pain."

"I'm not sure what caused it, but when I did a scan on Naruto back in my office, his chakra levels in multiple parts of his body were unstable and caused great pain."

"Is he going to be okay?" Jin was clearly worried about the boy.

"He has to get his charka levels stabilized as soon as possible."

Reaching the hospital, the two men demanded that Naruto receive immediate attention. When the Hokage demands something, no one stands idle. Med-nins and nurses ran forward, but upon seeing the fox boy, anger and hate held them back.

Jin, seeing that no one was stepping forward yelled at them. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE. CAN"T YOU SEE THAT HE NEEDS HELP!!!!" he gestured at the moaning Naruto who was in the Hokage's arms.

They all started muttering under their breath and turned away. No chance were they going to help a demon. Everyone turned their backs on the Hokage, leaving him filling with despair.

But a med-nin came and took Naruto. "Follow me."

The two men instantly obeyed and began to move towards a room. The med-nin laid Naruto down on a bed and began examining him. He then proceeded to have his hands glow blue with chakra, and moving them over parts of Naruto's body, avoid the strikes of chakra that came out.. He needed to put his chakra into Naruto in an attempt to use it as a stabilizer.

Eventually the pain marred face of Naruto relaxed and a slight snoring showed that he had fallen asleep. The med-nin retracted his hands and stopped the chakra flow. He moved towards a chair and sat in it.

"He'll be okay and will wake in a few hours. Just don't let him use chakra for a week or so."

The med-nin received many thanks from Jin and the Hokage before he left the room.

_**In Naruto's mind**_

'_Man that hurt.'_ Naruto was reeling from the pain he felt before he was unconscious. He got up slowly and saw he was in his sewer-like mind. He quickly moved to see Kyuubi. Entering the large room he called out to the fox.

"Hey, Kyuubi." The fox moved forward to see the kid better. "Do you know what happened to me?"

"**WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, YOU IDIOT? THAT WAS SO PAINFUL, I FELT SOME OF IT. I LOOKED AROUND YOUR BODY WHEN IT WAS HAPPENING AND YOUR CHAKRA WENT OUT OF CONTROL. IN EFFECT, YOUR OWN CHAKRA WAS HURTING YOU."**

"So I can't use chakra anymore?"

"**THAT'S NOT IT. REMEMBER YESTERDAY WHEN JIN GAVE YOU THAT CHAKRA PAPER? YOU WERE ABLE TO MOLD AND CHANNEL CHAKRA JUST FINE. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TODAY AND YESTERDAY IS THAT YOU USED A HAND SEAL."**

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"**HAND SEALS ARE USED TO FORCIBLY MOLD AND CHANNEL CHAKRA. JUTSUS USE A SERIES OF SEAL TO FORCE AND CHANGE THE CHAKRA INTO ELEMENT AND EFFECT. WITH YOU, IT SEEMS THAT FORCING YOUR CHAKRA WON'T WORK."**

"Doesn't that mean I can't use chakra anymore?"

"**IT JUST MEANS THAT YOU HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING WITHOUT HANDSEALS."**

"Oh. Well...that sucks."

"**AT ANY RATE, YOU'LL WANT TO WAKE UP SO, BECAUSE THE HOKAGE AND JIN ARE WORRIED ABOUT YOU RIGHT NOW, AND ALSO ASK THE HOKAGE TO NOT SEAL YOUR FOX PARTS AGAIN. IT'LL ONLY MAKE YOU WEAKER. I'LL TAKE CARE OF THE DISGUISE."**

"So no seal. Gotcha. Later."

Naruto's eyelids fluttered as he struggled to wake. Opening his eyes slowly, he immediately closed them to shut out the light that blinded him and cursed under his breath.

Jin heard him and moved towards Naruto bringing the attention of the Hokage back to Naruto.

"Naruto...", Jin called out tentatively, "are you awake?"

Naruto blinked a couple of times to adjust his eyes.

"Yea, I'm awake.", Naruto rasped out.

The Hokage took a pitcher of water that was on the bedside table and filled a glass for Naruto to drink. After taking a few sips, Naruto began to talk about what caused him his pain.

"I'm okay so you guys don't have to worry. The problem was that I can't use hand seals anymore."

Both men looked a combination of surprise and confusion.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for some reason, the forcing of chakra through hand seals for me causes chakra to spike in my body and become destabilized."

"Well that sucks. I'm the one that's gonna suffer for teaching a kid that can't do hand seals." Jin whined. He hung his head and streams of tears began to fall. Suddenly his head shot up and his eyes had a shine to them.

"Wait...if I train you, and you don't suck...then I'll be the greatest teacher ever! WOO-HOO!"

Jin started to run around the room with his hands thrown up in celebration. After some victory laps he stopped at the foot of Naruto's bed.

"When you get out of this hole you call a hospital, I expect you to be ready for training." With that, Jin promptly turned and left talking about how he would be the best.

Naruto and the Hokage were left stunned. _'That was completely unexpected.' _Naruto shook his head to clear it. He called out to the Hokage to get his attention.

"Ji-san, Kyuubi asked me to tell you to not put the seal on me anymore."

Turning to look at Naruto, he clearly had a puzzled expression on his face. "Why not? You know how the...people are."

Sadness and anger flashed in Naruto's eyes for a second. "Kyuubi said that he would take care of that so don't worry."

Naruto's eyelids began dropping. "Ne, Ji-san. I'm really tired right now so..." Naruto drifted of.

"I'll come see you again tomorrow Naruto. You just focus on getting better and resting up."

Sarutobi got up and left Naruto to his sleep.

A soft creak echoed around the room. Naruto stirred and woke. Looking up, he saw a blob in the darkness. Apparently it was still dark out. He could see the dark outline of a person standing over him as the person was in front of a window that had the moon in it's view.

Naruto instantly became scared and jumped out of the bed and fell onto the floor. It was just in time, as a whistling and ripping sound filled the air moments later. Scanning, the room to look for a way out, Naruto ran for the door, only to find that another person was standing in front of it. He hadn't seen him in the dark.

Naruto was grabbed by the person and raised into the air. Fear filled his being as noises behind him became louder and closer. The second person had leaned in close to Naruto's ear and whispered, "You die today, like you should have all those years ago."

Cold sweat broke out all over Naruto as he screamed out in fear and hopefully, help would come.

Soft laughter broke out from the man with the weapon as he watched Naruto struggle in his partner's arms. The man stopped his laughing and brought the kunai held in his hand forward, aiming directly for Naruto's heart.

Naruto's screams and shouts had reached a feverish pitch and he began sobbing. The plunging of the kunai hesitated for a second as a feeling that something bad was going to happen washed over the assailant. He immediately shook that off and continued the plunge.

Naruto's scream had turned into a deeper pitch and was actually a roar. Red chakra pulsed from his body knocking back both assassins and breaking every window. Naruto became engulfed in the red chakra as his swirled and wrapped around him. Letting out a roar again, Naruto ran on all fours for the attacker that held the kunai.

'_What the fuck?'_ On the floor, the man quickly picked up the kunai that had fallen next to him and got up, preparing for whatever knocked him down. However, he wasn't expecting a raging, kyuubified Naruto.

Naruto brought his hand and made a slashing motion with his clawed-right hand. The chakra surrounding his right arm extended in the shape of a claw and made four deep slashes across the man's chest, cutting right through the clothes he wore and spilling blood. Naruto then spun around and slashed at the man that was holding him. The chakra once againg extended and made deep gashes across the man's left arm.

Naruto then wasted no time in jumping out the broken windows to search for a safer place. Unfortunately, the two assailants from the hospital were quick to recover and gave chase. Even more unfortunate was that various ranked ninjas had poured out into the streets to identify the pulse of unknown chakra.

The ninja were shocked that the Kyuubi had shown itself. Fear and anger boiled over as, they unleashed waves of shurikens and kunais. Naruto waved his tail and billowed chakra from it to dispel the projectiles, but there were to many. Some hit causing Naruto to slow.

The shinobi took advantage and quickly surrounded him. They immediately set about using hand seals to perform jutsus or readied more weapons. Naruto looked around and saw nothing but a human wall that was continually growing.

Not allowing Naruto the chance to escape, the shinobi threw there weapons. Naruto roared and pulsed chakra to deflect them, but this action had brought the other shinobi the time to release their jutsus.

Several cries of jutsus rang out into the night. Naruto reflexively put his arms up to shield his face and closed his eyes.

A tornado erupted from where Naruto was. The wind deflected all the weapons and jutsus that were aimed at Naruto. The raging winds then shot outwards, knocking all the shinobi back. Jin appeared next to Naruto, anger evident on his face.

He carefully bent over Naruto and reached out to pick him up. Naruto flinched away, afraid that it was someone that was going to finish what had been started. A depressed look came onto Jin's face as he saw Naruto shun him like that.

"Naruto, it's me Jin. It's going to be alright."

Naruto raised his head to see Jin offering his hand out to him. He quickly took it and began to cry, the Kyuubi's chakra slowly receding from him. Jin was happy briefly before groans and shouts brought his attention back to the shinobi scattered about. Picking Naruto up into his arms,

Jin headed for the village gates.

Shinobi who threw themselves at Jin were forcefully repelled back. His bright green eyes glowed with a furious light. Upon reaching the main gates, Jin took a deep breath and prepared to leave, when a figure landed in front of him.

It was the Hokage. "How's Naruto?" Sarutobi said moving forward to get a better view of Naruto.

"He'll be fine, but I can not, in good conscience, allow Naruto to stay in this village. Those things called humans act more demonic than demons."

Tears began to fall from the Hokage's eyes as he felt responsible for the grave injustices that were carried out on Naruto.

"Naruto." Naruto removed his tear-stained face from Jin's chest to look at the Hokage. "I'm sorry that all this happened. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to protect you. I can only hope that you can forgive me someday."

Naruto removed himself from Jin's arms and embraced the Hokage. "It's okay. I don't blame you for what happened."

Jin allowed them a moment. "Come on Naruto. We have to get going."

Naruto broke the hug and moved back to Jin's side. They walked past the Hokage through the main gates.

"Naruto. Please come back someday and say hello to an old man."

Naruto turned his head and replied, "I will...someday."

With that Jin and Naruto walked off into the darkness and left the Hokage silently crying at the gates wondering when Naruto would return.

* * *

For now I am unsure of what to do, so I'll let you guys decide.

Pls vote if you want me to do a chapter of two on Naruto's training or if you want me to do a time skip immediatly to when he's 12.

If you vote for time skip, pls include the teams for the genin squads and sensei if you want them to change at all.

Thx.


	4. Chapter 4

1Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the other things that may or may not have appeared by means of a crossover.

Spoken

_thoughts_

**Kyuubi**

_**kyuubi thoughts**_

Thx to those that reviewed.

Sry if this chap was a bit short and crappy. I've had this down for a week already, but projects and homework kept getting in the way.

Then when I started to work on it again, I just couldn't and this is the result...

* * *

Chapter 4

The two chuunin guards standing on top of the village gates yawned in boredom.

"Oi", one of them called to his partner, "how'd we get stuck with this crappy job again?"

His partner grimaced in respond. "I already told you it was our turn. All chunnins are rotated so

that no one gets stuck with this shitty duty any more than they have to. Just deal with it alright. I

don't like this anymore than you, but if I have to do this, you better be quiet for the rest of the

day."

The 1st chuunin turned his attention back to the road, grumbling about how his partner was being harsh and how did he end up on guard duty. It was early morning, most of the village inhabitants were already out and about. It was a beautiful day. Letting out a sigh, he wondered if he should have ever become a chuunin in the first place.

'_Man of all the gates, I had to get assigned to the east one. That damn sun is always in your eyes.'_

He put his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun. as he did so he saw that a dark cloud was moving over the sun and heading towards the village.

'_Dammit, a storm is coming too? Does kami not exist?'_

"Hey, looks like we're gonna have a storm" he called out to his partner.

Silence reigned as the 2nd chuunin observed the dark cloud.

"Something's wrong.", he said in a quiet voice.

"What do you mean?"

"The cloud, it's just blocking out the sun, but underneath it, there's no lightning. There's not even thunder or rain. It's also coming down the road really fast."

The 1st chuunin mumbled under his breath. _'What the hell is that thing then? Why does it have to be me standing guard?'_

A few minutes later, he saw a figure approaching. It was hard to say, but he or she was carrying something in his/her hands. As the figure approached, everything fell under the oppressive cloud that seemed to follow the person.

"What's this feeling? It's like I feel as if I'm being slowly drowned." He was breathing and started to get nervous.

"I don't know, but be on guard"

The figure got closer and it was...

DEATH.

The two chuunins gasped in shock as they recognized the figure. The legendary reaper of souls.

It had a long flowing robe that billowed in the wind. The robe never touched the ground as it was hovering about 4 inches of the ground. Skeletal hands came out of the fold and carried a menacing and jagged scythe.

"W-w-what the fuck? H-h-how i-is this p-p-possible?"

Death had reached the gates and spoke out in a raspy voice that carried on the wind.

"Take me to your Hokage. I have come to reap souls for him."

"I-i-I'm so-so-sorry, b-but you can't e-e-enter without i-i-dentification."

"Then bring him to me. Give him the message that an old friend has come by to say hello to an old man"

The voice gave both guards chills. The 2nd chuunin spoke to his friend, "Okay, okay. I'm gonna go and get the Hokage and you just ..." he turned his head to face his partner, but all he saw was empty space.

Looking behind him, he saw that the other guard had already ran for it towards the Hokage's office. _'S.O.B'_

Turning back to Death he called out in a shaky voice, "Um, my partner left to give the message."

Then even more quietly "Please don't kill me"

"What was that?" Death spoke out

Snapping to attention, fear passed through every molecule of his body. "N-n-nothing, I swear."

Death seemed to have let it go and the chuunin let out a breath. _'That bastard better hurry up.'_

_**Meanwhile...**_

The guard had burst into the Hokage's office.

"Hokage-sama, Death has come to see you."

"...". The chunnins that were on guard duty for the Hokage snickered.

"What is the meaning of this? If this is a joke..."

"Waaaah?". The gate guard threw up his hands in front of him and waved them. "No. It's no joke. Death has really come and he says that he was an old friend and that he came by to say hello to an old man."

Looking up at him, the Hokage had only a single thought. _'Could it be? Has he really come back?'_

"Where is he?"

"At the East gate, but I don't think..." The guard trailed off as he saw that the Hokage had left by the window.

'_Shit, I'd better follow, but I don't want to dieeeeeeeeee.'_

Back at the gate...

"I'm getting impatient mortal"

Death speaking nearly sent the guard into a mental breakdown. Even worse was Death was getting impatient. He didn't know what to do. Training never included what to do if an all-powerful killer was after you.

When the Hokage landed next to him, he fainted from the shock and fell over to the ground. The Hokage jumped down and caught him. He walked to the gate house.

"Take this guy off my hands and open the gate."

"Hai." The chuunin manning the gatehouse took the gate guard and dropped him on the floor of the gate house. Then he opened the gate.

The Hokage approached death and said, "Welcome to Konoha. I am the Hokage. I was told you wanted to see me?"

"Yes. I have come to enter into your service and reap souls on your behalf."

"Really? Then we have much to discuss. Please, follow me to my office."

The gate guard that went to inform the Hokage, arrived back on the scene to see the exchange that followed. It was like...they were friends.

All the villagers nearby were in shock and awe. Death----Death had come and said he wanted to work for the Hokage? As the Hokage and Death passed through, they all recoiled in fear and backed away to leave some space, but the Hokage showed no fear. He was...no, they were conversing politely.

"Before we reach the office, can I offer you any food or refreshment?"

"I only drink blood...". The villages screamed and ran for it. "..the blood of my enemies."

The Hokage chuckled. Never before had this kind of thing happened. It was funny, if you knew what was going on.

As they entered the Hokage tower, the numerous shinobi there instantly felt the oppressive gloom and slight killing intent. Upon seeing Death and the Hokage together, they sprang into action.

Two ninjas cried out, "Hokage-sama, hurry and get away from him! It's not safe!" They jumped forward, grabbed the Hokage by the arms and ran towards his office.

The other ninjas left all brought out kunai. Death didn't seem phased by the turn of events and just kept floating forwards in the direction the Hokage had been dragged off .

"Stop right there and tell us who you are before we kill you"

"You can't kill the undead." Death shot up his killing intent. The lower-level ninjas froze in fear as images of demonic spirts started to manifest from Death and started to attack them. The jounin snapped out of the trance relatively fast and some upper chuunin managed to throw it off by hurting themselves.

Kunais left the ninja's hands instantly and all headed for Death. The problem was, they all passed through him. Death had made it to the stairs and started the spiral staircase upward to the top floor. As Death disappeared around the turning of the staircase, the killing intent dissipated and the frozen ones broke out of their trance. Some instantly heaved up what they had for breakfast.

"Come on. We have to stop him!" The ninja that were not hurt or sick or traumatized took off towards the stairs.

'_Damn, I just saw him get on the stairs a few seconds ago. How could he go this fast._' The ninja were running as fast as they could and as they reached the hallway of the top floor, Death was already halfway to the Hokage's office.

"Stop! Stop right there!" The shouts of the ninja had no effect, but it did bring the Hokage out. With him were the two ninja that had dragged him away. They looked a bit sheepish and had a few bumps on their heads.

"STOP! This person is my guest. I ask you all to not attack him. You are already showing a poor welcoming."

"But Hokage-sama, he could be an enemy spy or something."

"Do you think that I would lead someone dangerous into the village?"

"Um...We're sorry Hokage-sama."

The ninja bowed and left quickly, not wanting to push their luck with the Hokage.

"I'm terribly sorry about the hostility that my shinobi have shown you. Please come in."

They both entered the office. The second the door closed, the Hokage spoke.

"You can stop the illusion now Naruto."

He turned to face Death and now saw that the image was blurred and shaky. A moment later, in Death's place was a boy short for his age.

He had wild, blond hair that spiked in various directions. Part of his bangs were being held up by a strip of red cloth that was tied around his head as a headband with the extra length going down to his shoulders. He had bright blue eyes and three scars on his both sides of his face looking like whiskers. He was wearing a with a black short-sleeved shirt with a red spiral-like flame on the front, a pair of white pants that puffed out at the bottom and white slip on shoes. On his hands were green fingerless gloves, that had a metal plate with the kanji for wind on it. He was also carrying a black duffle bag over his shoulder.

"It's good to see you again Naruto." The Hokage moved to Naruto and gave him a hug.

"It's good to see you too, ji-san."

Braking the hug after a few moments, the Hokage moved around his desk to take a seat.

"So Naruto, what can you tell me you've been up to."

"Well, training mostly. It's a long story and if you want to hear it I'll tell you."

"I have some time, please, tell me where you've been in a summary."

Naruto could see that his absence had a big impact on the Hokage, so he complied.

"After we left the village, Jin took me to a secluded area, where he and a friend have a dojo. I've lived there for a while. Then he took me to some old woman's house so he could prepare for a tournament or something and said it was a good opportunity for me to learn something from her.

After that, Jin left for the tournament and told me to come back here."

'_Looks like you've been busy Naruto. I wonder how far you've come.'_

"Interesting story Naruto. I don't know how to phrase this and I don't want to offend you, but what was with the whole "Death" illusion when you came into the village?"

"Oh that. I just wanted to scare the village a little and make a lasting first impression on you."

The Hokage let out a small laugh. "Well, it was certainly entertaining."

Getting serious now, the Hokage had a worried look. "What about Kyuubi?"

"I don't know how to tell you this, but it's really weird and I don't understand how it works really. Because of the Kyuubi, I've been able to reach my mindscape much more easily than others. It's in my mindscape, that Kyuubi has been teaching me.

One day he gave me the summoning contract to the foxes and I tried it out in my mind. It worked for some reason. I think the reason was since the summoning plane was on a different plane that the real world or anyone's mindscape, they could theoretically be summoned anywhere.

So..."

"Wait a minute. How were you able to summon? That requires hand seals and I know you can't use them." The Hokage was really confused. Naruto could summon? Plus, what was the point of

talking about this?

"I had this theory after I learned how to make clones with out seals. My way was to bring out chakra and dump it all into a place next to me. I would then shape the chakra in to the shape of my likeness and using my blood, it some how came together into a clone.

That's how I did summoning. I formed chakra into the shape of a fox and using the blood necessary as the sacrifice for summoning, it came out.

Now the weird thing was that the foxes could be summoned into my mindscape and still leave. That gave me the idea, what if Kyuubi could leave his cage by means of the summoning plane. The seal that the Yondaime gave me only sealed Kyuubi into me as a way of keeping him out of the real world. So, I came formulated a plan with the foxes and the foxes used a summoning to bring Kyuubi out of me and into the summoning world.

The best part is that if I use summoning, than I could bypass the seal on me and summon Kyuubi if he is in the summoning plane. The think is, is that he's not fully in the summoning world. His soul is attached to mine, so he's always connected to me."

The Hokage was stunned. This boy in front of him was...he couldn't even come up with a word for it. He just undermined one of the strongest fuuin jutsu that ever existed.

Come to think of it, Naruto seemed a far throw from what he used to be. A sense of deadness lingered in his eyes. Sure, he seemed genuinely happy to see the Hokage, but being in the village again was maybe too much for him. No longer was he the loud, energetic ball of energy. He was calm ,collected and perhaps had a mischievous streak.

Naruto smirked a bit when he saw the slack-jawed look the Hokage had. Naruto reveled in the reaction he caused. When the Hokage snapped out of his stupor Naruto spoke.

"So, I came back just like you asked. Now, I want to be a ninja in your ranks."

Sarutobi was a bit stunned. Why would Naruto want to be a ninja in this village? He was abused in his early years in life and becoming a ninja meant becoming a tool for the village.

"Are you sure? If you become a ninja, you'll have to work for the people who...may dislike you." Sarutobi struggled with words to try not to drag up bad memories for Naruto.

"It's okay. Now matter what, I feel attached to this place, no matter how much I dislike the people. Plus, I feel this is the only way I can repay you for what you've done for me."

"That's not necessary Naruto. I should be trying to make thinks up to you. It was my fault that you had to leave this village." Sarutobi's head drooped a little in shame. Bad memories for him started to swirl back.

"Cheh. You know I don't blame you. You were like a grandfather to me and I'll always have respect for you."

"Thanks Naruto. Are you sure you want to be a shinobi?" Seeing a nod from the boy, he wrote down something and put it aside.

"Alright Naruto, since you came back at this moment, you'll have to join the academy. I believe you had around a week before it starts up again. Pass the class and graduate, then you'll be a genin of the leaf and work your way up."

Sarutobi stood up and headed for the door. "Now, if you'll follow me, I show you to the house I've prepared for you should you have ever returned."

* * *

Pls review and the vote is still on. I believe the lead goes to a team of Naruto, Hinata, and Shino with Kurenai as their sensei 


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the other things that may or may not have appeared by means of a crossover.

Spoken

thoughts

**Kyuubi_kyuubi thoughts_**

voting is still going so get in those last minute votes as next chapter will have the teams. Pls don't make this a florida thing.

Chapter 4

It had been about two hours since Naruto was shown his house. It was more like a log cabin than anything. Apparently the Hokage had deemed it best that Naruto was as far from the willage as possible. His house was at the village outskirts and was basically surrounded by forests.

Naruto didn't mind one bit as he had come to enjoy a bit of solitude in his travels with Jin. Jin was overly active and happy at times and he just needed some time alone.

Right now, Naruto had taken his duffel bag and moved into the forest finding a nice place to start meditating. His return to the village had brought him more bad memories than he expected and he wanted to clear his mind of all that.

Finding a small clearing that was near a stream, Naruto got into lotus position and closed his eyes and started to take long drawn out breathes. Eventually, Naruto started floating in mid-air. (sorta like Picollo in DBZ)

Naruto was deep in concentration when a sound pierced into his mind. Naruto snapped his eyes open and abruptly fell to the ground. Getting up and rubbing his behind, he quiet stalked towards the direction of the noise.

Getting closer, Naruto found that the noise was actually sobbing._ 'That's weird. Why would someone be crying out here?'_

Naruto carefully got closer until he saw the person. It was a young girl, possibly around his age. She had dark blue hair and wore a creme colored jacket with a flame design on the shoulders. She had on blue-black pants and sandals.

She was currently huddled up near the stream and was trying to stifle her sobs. Naruto approached her and spoke, "Are you alright?"

The girl gasped and turned around to face the person that had spoken to her. She quickly tried to dry her eyes and looked up. "Y-yes, I-I'm okay." Tears started to continue flowing down her face.

Naruto set down his duffel bag and started to dig through it until he pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to the girl. She blushed a bit, accepted it and started drying her eyes.

"T-t-thank y-you."

Naruto took a seat next to her. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What's yours?"

"H-h-hyuuga Hinata."

"So Hinata-san, why is a girl as pretty as yourself, ruining her face by crying?"

Hinata stiffened a little and started blushing heavily. Nobody had ever complimented her so openly before. It was either her family saying that she was weak or that people generally avoided her as she was a Hyuuga.

"I-I needed t-to get a-away for a-awhile because m-my father s-s-said I w-was w-weak. He says that as heir of the Hyuuga clan, I have to be strong, and be the best at the ninja academy this year."

A frown formed on Naruto's face. _'Why would a father belittle their daughter like this?'_

"Oh, so your training to be a ninja?" Naruto was curious. If she was in the academy, then he might be able to help out.

"Y-yes. A-after this y-year, if I-I pass, t-then I'll b-be a g-genin."

Naruto contemplated how he was going to propose a way to help her. "Hinata-san...," Hinata gave her full attention to Naruto, "I don't know how strong or weak you are, but if you would like, I could possibly teach you a few things that might help you out."

"R-really?" Seeing Naruto nod his head, she replied "T-thank you. I w-w-would like i-it if y-you helped m-me, but w-why are y-you helping m-me?"

Naruto grinned at her. "I don't like to see people cry and your face is too pretty to be covered with tears."

Hinata's whole face lit up red with a blush and she resorted to pushing her index fingers together as a way to cope. _'She looks kinda cute when she blushes like that.'_

"Would you like to start now?" Hinata fought to keep the blush down and nodded.

"H-hai, w-what am I g-g-going to be d-doing f-first, N-naruto-...sensei."

Naruto started to fidget a little. "Just Naruto is fine. I'm going to assume that you know how to use chakra." Seeing Hinata's nod, Naruto continued, "Well, I can't really help you with jutsus or with your style of fighting other than be a sparring partner with you, but I can teach you some chakra control exercises."

Naruto moved to a tree and started looking around the base of it. He picked up a leaf and started to float it on his hand using chakra. "Now you try." Naruto passed the leaf to Hinata.

She closed her eyes and started to focus chakra to her hand. The leaf floated up, but it's height was unstable. A few moments passed and the leaf stabilized. Naruto looked at Hinata with a simle. 'She had fairly good chakra control.'

"So you already know this one?"

"I-i'm s-sorry if..."

"Nani? What are you apologizing for? You did a great job, so now we get to move on to the next thing."

Naruto returned to his duffel bag. After digging around for a second he returned to Hinata with somethings in his hands.

"This knife," Naruto showed her the knife which he unfolded and brought out the 4 inch blade, "was forged using wind-type chakra, making it one of the sharpest knives ever." To prove this, Naruto brought out his other hand and in it was an apple. Placing the tip of the knife over the apple, directly on the skin, Naruto let it drop. The knife immediately pierced the apple all the way to the handle.

Hinata gasped in shock. If the knife had been longer or the apple smaller, the knife would have stabbed Naruto's hand. Naruto then took the knife out of the apple and handed the apple to Hinata, who was still to shocked to do anything except take it.

Naruto then positioned it over his hand and dropped it in the same manner as with the apple. The knife glowed as chakra enveloped it and kept it from digging into Naruto's hand. Hinata, by now was more than a bit nervous and afraid. She didn't think that she could do it.

'_I can't do this, and when I tell Naruto , he won't help me anymore.' _

Naruto took the knife and pushed the blade back into the handle. "That was just a demonstration of what you could do once you master the technique. I won't be letting you do the exercise without practicing on something less dangerous first. That would be stupid of me."

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief. She really didn't want to get stabbed in the hand. "Do you had a kunai?" Hinata reached for her kunai holster in her leg an took one out. Naruto took back the apple and started to eat it.

"The key to this exercise which is not all that different from the one with the leaf. You have to use the right amount of chakra. In the leaf exercise, you have to generate and keep a steady flow of chakra so that it can float. It's harder this time because the kunai is heavier. You have to send out chakra so that it covers the kunai and hold it upright. Too much chakra and the kunai flies off your hand. Too little and it'll fall over and cut you. To prevent any injuries, cover your hand with chakra first."

Hinata brought up her left hand palm up and it started to glow blue. She took a deep breath and then placed the kunai over her hand. Slowly and carefully she placed the tip on her hand and let go of it. It stood upright for a second before she saw it falling forward. Desperately she forced more chakra into her hand in an attempt to make it straighten out. All that chakra just made it fly forward out of her hand and make the handle of the kunai hit Naruto directly in the forehead.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." Naruto clutched his forehead to try to live relieve the pain.

"I-i'm sorry. I-I'm s-so s-sorry." "It's okay. I'm not hurt that much." Naruto gingerly removed the headband covering his forehead and touched the impact site to try and gauge the damage. As it stood now, at best it was nothing more than a red spot that was slightly more sensitive, and at worst, it would swell and turn into a bruise.

Hinata saw the angry red mark and reached into her jacket pocket to bring out a jar. Naruto looked at her curiously as Hinata explained. "I-i-it's a h-h-healing salve. P-please use i-it."

Naruto took it, but then offered it back to her. "Can you do it Hinata-san? I'm afraid that I can't do it without seeing it."

Hinata blushed at the thought of close contact with a handsome boy like Naruto. She bowed her head so that Naruto wouldn't see the blush and took the jar. She opened it and rubbed her finger into it.

"Naruto-san, p-please hold back y-your h-hair." Naruto took his hand and swept his hair back and held it from falling back in his face. Hinata slowly reached out and started to apply the salve. Naruto closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling the salve had in cooling the area where he had been hit.

"I-i'm done n-now, Naruto-san." Naruto opened his eyes to see that Hinata was still blushing.

"Thanks, Hinata-san. It feels much better now. Would you mind if I could have the salve? It seems very good and I would like to have some."

"N-not at a-all Naruto-san."

"Why don't you keep trying. I have something I need to take care of." Hinata nodded and Naruto headed back into the forest. Naruto crouched down and taking his knife, he cut his thumb so that a trickle of blood flowed. Naruto then using that handed placed it on the floor and started to pump chakra into his hand. Slowly raising his hand he kept pumping out chakra and letting his blood mingle with it. The chakra slowly started to take shape.

Naruto had summoned out a fox. It was about mid-shin high and had completely silver fur except for the tips of it's two tails: they were white. "Zero, I would like for you to catch some food for me. Make sure there's enough for two people."

The fox yipped and took off into the forest. Naruto got down onto the ground and leaned against the trunk of a tree. He applied more of Hinata's salve on to the cut and was amazed that it started to hiss and smoke. Soon, it looked like there had been no cut at all. About five minutes later, a yip caught Naruto's attention. Standing before him was Zero and he had two rabbits.

"Please stay for a bit Zero." Naruto took out the knife and carefully skinned and gutted the two rabbits. Cutting some meat off, Naruto gestured to the remains. "Have fun Zero. Be sure to go back and give Kyuubi my regards." Zero yipped happily and started to eat.

Naruto took some broad leaves from some plants and placed the meat on them. Naruto then walked back to where Hinata was and saw that she was still struggling with the exercise.

"Hinata-san," Naruto called out to her, "please start a fire. I have lunch." Hinata put away her kunai and wiped away some sweat that had formed on her brow. Naruto went headed for the stream and started to clean his knife and the meat.

Hinata had gathered rocks and dry wood to start the fire. Putting the rocks in a circle and the dry sticks in the middle, she lit it with an academy level fire jutsu. By then Naruto had finished cleaning the meat and set it beside the fire. He then went to a tree and cut off some of the skinner branches and shaved them down until they were small stakes.

He returned to Hinata and together they staked the meat and set it over the fire. While waiting for the meat to cook. Naruto and Hinata started to talk. Hinata explained more about her father and her sister, whom she had to fight for the position of heir. She also explained about the branch house of the Hyuuga clan.

Naruto was shock and appalled by the way that the family had treated the branch house. Naruto absent-mindedly took some of the cooked meat and began munching on it as he thought about the Hyuuga clan.

'_They seem pretty messed up. What kind of family forces one another to serve and die for them.'_

His thoughts then turned to Hinata as he realized that she was also part of the clan._ 'She doesn't seem so bad, nothing at all like the rest of her family that she described.'_

"Naruto-san may we continue the training." Hinata's voice snapped Naruto out of his thoughts.

"Huh? Oh yea. Have you made any progress?"

At this Hinata's head bowed in shame as she replied, "I've only been able to get it for a second."

"Let me see how you're doing it."

Hinata brought out the kunai and showed Naruto what she was doing. She stood it upright on her had and let it go only for it to fall over seconds later.

"Why don't you try and hold onto the kunai until your chakra has had a chance to cover it."

Hinata once again and took the kunai. She held it and waited until the blue glow of chakra had reached from the tip to the handle. She let it go and saw to her amazement that it stayed up.

Naruto smiled at her. "Good job Hinata-san. Now lets see how long you can keep it like that."

The rest of the day continued in this manner, with Hinata continuing to try to keep the kunai upright without holding it until she had it. It was late afternoon when she had mastered the exercise.

"Thank you Naruto-san for helping me today."

"It was no problem. By the way, I live around here, so if you ever want to drop by for a sparring partner of something, feel free to do so." Hinata nodded and took off.

'_Well today was certainly interesting. Lets see what happens when I get to the academy.' _

* * *

The rest of the week passed uneventfully for Naruto. He just mainly stayed home not wanting to tempt fate by going into the village anymore than he had to, lest some villagers remember him and call for blood...once again.

Hinata had dropped by a few more times looking for a person to train with. Naruto happily complied and pushed each other to the limits in search of new strength.

At last the first day of the academy was in session and Naruto was leisurely walking towards the academy eating a sandwich for breakfast. Whistling a jaunty tune, Naruto wondered how things would turn out on his first day.

Upon entering the academy, he pulled out a piece of paper with the information on where his class was going to be that the Hokage had given him the previous day.

'_Lets see...room 5B and instructor is...Umino Iruka.' _Walking down a hallway, Naruto looked at the door numbers. _'5A, 5B, 5C... wait a minute, what was that last one?' _Back tracking he saw that it was 5B.

Naruto raised his hand and knocked on the door before entering. Naruto heard noise on the other side, but it was immediately silent as he entered. Whispers floated around the class regarding who the new kid was.

Looking at the man in the front of the class, Naruto asked, "Excuse me, but are you Iruka-sensei."

"Yes, I am. Who are you?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, and I'm the new student."

Iruka looked down at his attendence and saw that there was an Uzumaki Naruto on his list.

"Right, go take a seat." Iruka gestured towards the class. Naruto walked down the center isle and made it all the way to the back row before taking a seat...right next to Hinata.

Hinata was surprised that Naruto was going to be in class with her. He had made no mention of ever being part of the academy.

"How are you today Hinata-chan?" Hinata blushed bright red at the change in suffix. "I'm fine Naruto-..kun."

Naruto did not seem to notice any change as Iruka began talking to the class. "Alright class, settle down. To see what you can all do, I have today set up as a testing day." Massive groans filled the air. "First is a written exam, you have 45 minutes."

Iruka began passing out the test papers and pencils. "You may now begin."

'_Just my luck to have a series of exams on the first day. Well lets see what I'm up against.' _Naruto turned over the his exam and started to read through the questions. The test was on the history of Konoha and about some shinobi rules. Naruto started to look sheepish. _'I can't answer any of these. I haven't even learned about this.'_

45 mins later the tests were collected and Naruto was the only one with a blank test. The closest one to that was Shikamaru as he answered only one question before giving up in favor of sleep.

**_Next up, target practice..._**

Out in the courtyard the class formed several lines in front of target dummies. "Now we're testing your aim. So throw 10 kunai and I'll evaluate your proficiency."

After several students went, Naruto's turn was up. Picking up the kunai, he tossed them up into the air a little to get a feel for the weight. Looking at the dummy, which was swaying gently in the air (these dummies aren't the ones on posts. Rather they are hanging ones from trees.), aruto took careful aim. Throwing the kunai, one right after another, only two hit. A gust had pushed the dummy to one side as he through the kunai. The dummy swung back to it's original position only in time for the last two to hit.

'_What is this? The world is against Naruto day?' _Naruto thought as he saw the abysmal results.

**_Next up, nin, gen and taijutsu..._**

Ny now Naruto was convinced the world was against him as he barely knew any ninjutsu other than making kage bunshins and summoning foxes and that was without making handseals. His genjutsu also relied heavily on fox illusions. Naruto chose to fail both these areas as doing things without handseals would do more than just draw attention to him.

As for taijutsu, lets just say that Naruto took his frustrations out on the training post and it was nothing more than a pile of debris in a matter of minutes.

Back in class...

"Okay everyone, that's it for today. I'll post up the results for the tests tomorrow and those results earn you your starting class ranking."

'_Today was possibly the worst day in the world.'_

Hinata noticed that Naruto seemed a bit depressed. She had noticed his poor performances during the tests and was amazed by the strength he possessed on the taijutsu test.

"Are you okay Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned around to see that it was Hinata asking.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I just had some bad luck today. Nothing to worry about."

The months passed by and the day of graduation was upon the entire class. After the first day of classes. It was posted that Uchiha Sasuke was first in rank and Naruto was last. Naruto decided it was for the best to continue hiding his skills except for his taijutsu as everyone had already seen it and to hide it would only bring suspicion.

Sasuke naturally thought Naruto was a dobe and payed no attention to him, except the fact that he possessed excellent taijutsu skills unnerved him a liitle. A rivalry started up between Naruto and Sasuke, more like a one-sided rivalry as Sasuke constantly challenged Naruto to a spar to settle who was the better at taijutsu, but Naruto refused each and every time.

Naruto just said it was pointless to fight just to see who was stronger and that if Sasuke wanted to be the strongest all he had to do was say so and he wouldn't mind.

This just angered Sasuke and he was always comforted by his fan-girls, which just made him even angrier.

_**Present time...**_

"Today you have to perform a jutsu to pass and graduate from the academy. You will be told the jutsu when you are in the testing room."

Naruto paid little attention to Iruka. Over the past year, Naruto worked hard to use the academy jutsus so that he could pass. Of course, the jutsu was performed in a weird way and he just hoped that he passed in this manner.

Looking over to his side, he saw Hinata was pushing her fingers together. A sure sign that she was nervous. "Hinata-chan," Hinata broke out of her worries and looked at Naruto, "I'm sure you'll do fine and pass."

"Thank you Naruto-kun." Over the past year, Hinata had started to like Naruto as more than a friend, but was too shy to say anything. Even if Naruto didn't show it in class, she knew he worked hard when he trained because they often trained together. She saw him working hard to make up for her weaknesses and wished that she could be like that.

Even if she didn't know, Hinata had been getting stronger and stronger. Her father had less to say about her weaknesses an saw that she had progressed an impressive amount.

"Hyuuga Hinata." Hinata was called and she got up to go to the testing room.

"Good luck Hinata-chan." Hinata blushed and nodded to him. A few minutes later, Hinata returned with a Konoha headband around her neck.

"I did it. I passed Naruto-kun." Naruto got up and hugged her. "I knew you could fo it Hinata-chan." Blood rushed to Hinata's face and she passed out. Naruto felt her go limp in his arms and looked at her face.

This wasn't the first time she passed out like that and he wasn't sure why. Naruto shrugged and placed he back into her seat.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto strode into the testing room as his name was called. In the room sat Iruka ans Mizuki. On a table in front of them at one point were enough headbands for the entire class, but now only a few remained showing how many people had passed.

Iruka leaned over to Mizuki and whispered into his ear before getting up and leaving the room saying to Naruto that he was on a bathroom break. Mizuki grinned. _'Now I have the perfect chance to get the demon brat.' _

"Okay Naruto," Mizuki's face struggled into a smile, "I want you to perform Bunshin no Jutsu and make three clones."

"Bunshin no Jutsu." Naruto faked the handseals necessary to perform the jutsu. Behind him three perfect copies of him materialized.

"I'm sorry, but you fail."

"WHAT?!? Why? The clones were perfect." Naruto couldn't believe what he was hearing. Something was off and all the while Mizuki just had a smirk on his face.

"I'm sorry Naruto, but you fail and there's no arguing against it." Mizuki had to restrain himself from laughing at the utter look of confusion on Naruto's face. By now Iruka had come back in.

"So Naruto, how'd you do?"

Before Naruto could complain to Iruka about Mizuki failing him, Mizuki jumped in and said, "He failed and he refuses to accept it."

'_That's weird, I could have sworn I saw him do it properly last week.' _"I'm sorry Naruto, but if you failed, then you'll have to try again next year."

Naruto absent-mindedly turned around and left. His blank stare was the only hint that at that moment he was talking to Kyuubi.

"**KIT, THAT BASTARD'S MESSING WITH YOU. I SAW THE WHOLE THING. YOU SHOULD HAVE PASSED."**

"Nice of you to drop by Kyuubi. Haven't seen you for a while. You're right, there's no way Mizuki-sensei could have known that I didn't actually to the jutsu. The only reason I can tell that he would fail me is on purpose and he wouldn't do that unless..."

"**IT'S BECAUSE OF ME KIT. HE HATES YOU BECAUSE OF ME. DAMN...I WISH I COULD EAT HIM."**

"Are people still hung up over that? Geez...maybe I should go to the old man."

Naruto had been on auto-pilot the whole time and reached his seat. Hinata had woken up to see Naruto returning to his seat with a dazed look. She immediately noticed that Naruto had not received a headband and that meant that he failed.

"What's the matter dobe, failed the test?" Sasuke's voice range out bring all attention to Naruto.

Hinata was getting worried that Naruto didn't respond. "Are you okay Naruto-kun?"

"**YOU SHOULD LEAVE KIT. YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS GETTING WORRIED ABOUT YOU."**

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!!" Naruto yelled back, red in the face from blushing. He turned around and started to walk away down the corridor.

"**YEAH, JUST KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT." **Kyuubi snickered as he left. **_'Man, that boy is dense.'_**

The world can back into focus as Naruto heard Hinata's question. "...okay Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."

"I'm sorry that you didn't pass."

"That's okay. It's no big deal." Hinata could tell it was a lie. There was a small waver in his voice.

"Hey dobe, so you didn't pass. A loser is always a loser."

Naruto ignored Sasuke as Iruka came out and announced the end of the exams and to come tomorrow to get sorted into teams.

Naruto dragged himself out of the class on onto the nearby swing in front of the academy. Hinata had given him a goodbye telling him she had to go home. Naruto watched as the kids told there parents that they passes and also some not so nice comments about how it was good that the demon kid had not passed.

'_I guess I should go talk to ji-san now.' _Naruto was about to get off the swing when he felt a hand on his sholder. Looking behind him, Naruto saw it was Mizuki.

"Mizuki-sensei, what do you want?"

"I just wanted to tell you to not be so mad at not failing. I'm giving you a second chance to pass."

"**CAREFUL KIT. HE'S UP TO SOMETHING." **Kyuubi's voice entered into his thoughts.

"Really, Mizuki-sensei."

"That's right Naruto. All you have to do is break into the Hokage's office and steal the Forbidden Scroll there. Go to the shack about 4 miles into the west forest and deliver it to me. Accomplish this task and you'll pass."

Naruto thought it over. _'He's definitely up to something. Is this part of why he purposely failed me or is really a second chance? Maybe I should go along with this but ask ji-san if this is really part of the exam.'_

"Alright Mizuki-sensei, when should I get the scroll." _'Jackpot. Once Naruto get's me the scroll, all I have to do is hide it and kill him. I get a super-powerful scroll and be a hero for killing the demon.'_

"You should get it at around midnight. Oh and if you don't go in trying your hardest, then you fail."

Mizuki started to walk away. _'This couldn't be any easier. Now all I have to do is wait and when the time is right...' _Mizuki broke off and started to laugh.

* * *

Sorry if the academ scenes are a bit weird. Cuz really naruto starts at the end of the academy and well i really have nothing to go on.

Also i just realized how hard it is to make characters have thoughts. Geez.. it was pretty hard for me to Sasuke in there and i think he wasn't exactly in character.

So i've decided that i need help. if you want send an email to to apply.


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